Games played: 1Game type: TriviaOther games like it: Trivial PursuitThis is barely a board game. I only play this at WBC. In this game, each player is given a 5x5 grid. At the top, the 5 columns are labeled with categories, such as “Hockey players” or “Academy Award winners for Best Costume Design.” The 5 rows are labeled with 5 letters of the Alphabet. Within 5 minutes, players must find 1 thing that starts with the letter of the alphabet for each category. At WBC, we play 5 rounds of this, highest score wins. I like trivia games, so I enjoy this a lot, even though I’m pretty terrible at most of the sports questions.

I love this game and don't mind picking up another copy.Particular since I've never come across this 3M "Red Box" version before.

This appears to be a 1971, or so, unplayed copy. At least, based on the latest copyright date and the fact that the cards are very crisp and the neither of the scoring pads have ever been used.

$2.40 with Old Geezer discount from local GW. There is some shelfwear scuffing to the box but that's about it. Oh, it was missing a letter "S" but I just happened to have one from a parts stash I had on hand. Woot!

Finally found a parts copy to complete mine. It was $2.99. More than I wanted to spend, but it really bugs me to have an incomplete game. If anyone needs anything from this game let me know and I will see if I can help you out.

This is somewhat of a difficult list, as it's somewhat moment-dependent. After all, for a window a few years ago, Dominion would be a shoo-in for this list. Perhaps there's an argument that it still deserves to be here, but Dominion has moved from the only deck-building game of it's kind to being the forerunner of a host of deckbuilding games. Invariably, when a game does something truly unique, other games will try to use the mechanic or idea that makes a game unique and appropriate it for their own, diluting the uniqueness of the original idea. There's nothing inherently wrong with this, it's the nature of game development. Given this premise, I present to you my own Top 5 Games That Do Something That Feels Very Unique (as of this moment in 2015):

5. 7 WondersAlright, bring on the haters. I pondered what to put in this last spot for a long while before I settled on 7 Wonders. The card drafting isn't unique by any stretch, nor is the tableau building, but the scalability to 7 players is, absolutely. I remain fascinated by the ability of this game to remain as deep and satisfying with 3 players as it is with 7. For someone that hosts large game nights and needs a good 7 player game from time to time, playing this game with 7 players in relatively quick speed makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.

4. WitnessEvery game I've played of this so far has seen players smiling and giggling. the stories and clues and mysteries fit together so neatly that it's just a gem of a game.

3. Tragedy LooperCo-op puzzle-solving, where you rewind time after bad things happen and try to stop them from happening the next time. (Oddly, some bad things can happen, you just want to make sure the right bad things don't happen.) I don't know of any other game that plays like this one does. It wouldn't surprise me if someone comes up with a more streamlined version of this in the next few years, but for now nothing else does what Tragedy Looper does.

2. Roll for the GalaxyTo me, this is the most innovative use of dice I've seen in a game to date. How they are used in action selection, as well as how you can tailor the kinds of dice you get to ultimately affect your later rolls, is incredibly creative. It blends the luck of the dice with strategic and tactical choice so smoothly that it demands a place on this list.

1. BridgeI prefaced this list talking about how situated in time this list would be. That said, I have a hard time imagining Bridge ever leaving this list. Other trick-taking games exist in a wide variety of forms, and some look remarkably similar to Bridge. For example, Spades is a much simplified form of Bridge that mechanically does most of what Bridge does, except for the bidding. But as I said in the GCL Madness 2015 rounds earlier this year:

Thesp wrote:

The mechanics of the game are very easy. It's the conventions of bidding that are indeed complex, and moreso than Tichu. (How do you convey just how good or bad your hand is, and what suits you're good in, when everything you communicate potentially increases your commitment to the number of tricks your team will take? It's delightfully tense.) However, I have found that exploring the game and its complexities is incredibly rewarding. If you find someone who can teach you and is willing to be patient (as most people are), it's worth a couple of hours learning to see if it's for you.

I think that there are fewer "lifestyle" games being devised now than ever there were before, which is understandable. I think for something to do what Bridge does, it likely would need its own conventions to naturally develop over time, which I don't see happening any time soon. Compound this with the number of different possible conventions out there for Bridge (some play Goren, some American Standard, some other offshoots like Every Hand an Adventure, and even more I'm sure I'm not aware of), all within the same fixed game space, it's like people learning to speak beautiful languages with a very restrictive set of tonal sounds to work from. It's a masterpiece we shall not see again in our lifetimes.

$0.99 at East Side GW. 1976 Avalon Hill edition. Box has considerable shelf wear, but sound. Cards and tiles were all there, along with the timer and rules. A good chunk of the score pads were still blank, too, but I'll probably laminate a few before giving the game a try.

I see this becoming a HeavyCon staple...Chad came over to our house on Christmas Day last year and along with other games, we played this and I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Now, whenever we have a good-size group, we break this out. Saturday night at HeavyCon was no different. Everyone (save for the 3 playing 1846) broke into 3 teams and played two quick rounds of this. Hilarity ensued. We also learned that Nipple, Buttery is not an acceptable name of a cocktail that begins with the letter "N"!